Writeme43- RIGHT ON!!!!!! Laguna seca totally kicks ass! Here is a quicky of my boss in his 92 civic hatch not too long ago. I call this about as close as it comes, he says he could have been slightly more agressive...I know he's just kidding though, Im guessing he had a pucker factor 10.
He is a driving instructor for road raceing, and runs a HWC car, and runs a couple other cars. We have a hell of a time together as professional suspension and tire destroyers who take work very seriously (thank god for his company parts or I would never be able to pay for it.
Now, personally, after interning in texas for a while at a place that has done Nascar engines for penskey, junior johnson, and a bunch of other guys I dont remember the names of, I became totally turned off from nascar. It went from, ok, its a boring oval race, but at least its still racing, to, ok, its a totally marketing powered TV show. But hey, if you like the show, thats awsome, watch it, and if it can cause stimulation of the economy, more power to it.
As far as tech goes though, myself and others in the engine design field belive its a fairly large part of the reason that big 3 engine tech is 10years+ behind the rest of the world (except for gimicks, they are possibily leading the world in gimicks). They have worked to polish and refine the 2v pushrod design and carborators to increadible levels because thats the only design nascar and prostock permit in the rules. Unfortunately, this means other companys racing leagues (JGTC, ETC, le-mans...) get to be refineing engine design tech that can largely directly apply towards makeing proper engine designs (4v/cyl) for production cars. This hurts our economy, and you see it with goverment bail-outs for GM, delphi (worlds largest automotive electronics company), and other companys.
As a race lover, I respect all forms of raceing, but for raceing that I personally will choose to watch or support, its gotta turn both ways, require threshold brakeing and have the occasional hairpin, along with elevation changes. Just driving or rideing 180+mph in a straight line is exciteing the first few times you do it, then it gets fairly lame. For example, at SIR, the straight-away (road course uses the drag strip for the straight) is the time when you cool down, rest, try to relax and prepare for the next bit of raceing. The fact that you are reaching high speeds on the straight becomes quickly passe when compaired with the excitement of elevation changes and sharp turns.
